Owner of ruined Nottoway Plantation in La. hopes to rebuild

New York Post

17-05-2025

The owner of the largest remaining antebellum mansion in the South — which burned to the ground this week — hopes the 166-year-old Louisiana home will rise again.
Fire officials believe the cause of the Nottoway Plantation blaze was electrical and not suspicious, William Daniel Dyess, an attorney and preservationist, told The Post.
The blaze may have started in a side bedroom. There had been a tour of the property that morning, said Dyess, who said he hopes to rebuild the home.
Flames broke out at the estate in White Castle, about 30 minutes south of Baton Rouge, just after 2 p.m. on Thursday, drawing engines from 10 local fire departments who were helpless to stop the fire from torching all 53,000 square feet of the historic structure.
3 A fire engulfed the historic Nottoway Plantation in Louisiana on Thursday. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
AP
One fire marshal called it 'the biggest fire' they'd seen, according to ABC. No injuries were reported.
Dyess only recently bought the home, after the previous owner was killed in a car accident, he said.
Nottoway was a sugar plantation operated and constructed by slave labor on behalf of John Hampden Randolph in 1859. The 165-room home became a museum in the 1980s, opening its doors to visitors from around the world.
But a number of people on social media said they were glad to see it burn.
3 Nottoway was a sugar plantation operated and constructed by slave labor on behalf of John Hampden Randolph in 1859 for roughly $80,000 or about $3 million in 2025 dollars.
Nicholas Schabert/Facebook
3 Nottoway's current owner William Daniel Dyess says he may rebuild the property.
AP
'Some call it a tragedy, but for many Black folks, it feels like a small act of justice,' a man named Neo from The Black Wall Street Times wrote on X. 'That house was built by enslaved hands and later turned into a wedding venue that profited off our pain.
'Maybe now, our ancestors can rest a little easier. Sometimes, ashes feel like freedom.'
Nottoway was 'a symbol of both the grandeur and deep complexities,' Iberville Parish President Chris Daigle wrote on Facebook.
'While its early history is undeniably tied to a time of great injustice, over the last several decades it evolved into a place of reflection, education, and dialogue,' Daigle added.
Dyess said he understands the property's polarizing history, but doesn't align with its checkered past.
'I take this position — we are non-racist people. I am a lawyer and my wife is a judge. we believe in equal opportunity rights for everyone, total equality and fairness,' Dyess said. 'My wife and I had nothing to do with slavery but we recognize the wrongness of it.
'We are trying to make this a better place. We don't have any interest in left wing radical stuff. We we need to move forward on a positive note here and we are not going to dwell on past racial injustice.'
Dyess is also the owner of the Steel Magnolia House in Natchitoches, the home at the centerpiece of the 1989 film, 'Steel Magnolias.'